Tag Archives: Cate Blanchett

In a recent interview with Flicks and Bits, Cate Blanchett talked about her disappointingly brief time on the set of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and how it essentially led her to “become a stalker” when rumors of The Hobbit began to surface!

“I had no expectation that there would be anything more after the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I thought that was sort of the end of the journey – and my time on that trilogy was all too brief. I was there for three or four weeks, even though they shot for such a long time, I was only there for that amount of time. So when I heard that Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh (producer/screenwriter) and Philippa Boyens (screenwriter) were going to embark upon The Hobbit, I became a stalker, and I literally called my agent – and I don’t really bother my agent that much, but I called her pretty much everyday to say, “Is there any word yet? Is Galadriel going to be in it?” I kept getting the answer that Peter doesn’t know yet, because of course Galadriel doesn’t appear much in The Hobbit book, so I was hoping against hope. And then when I got word that, in fact, she was going to be in a small section of it I was over the moon. It was a little bit like returning to Summer camp, in that so many of the people that were a part of the first journey are a part of this journey. It’s an amazing thing to be able to return to something that begun 12 years ago.”

Flicks and Bits also talked to Hugo Weaving in the interview, who talked about what delving into the fantastical world of Middle Earth to tell stories about the human condition means to him:

We’re all dressed up and pretending, creating this world – and that’s the wonderful thing about it. That’s why you do it, you try to illuminate another reality, or illuminate another internal reality for a particular person or a group of people, create a whole new world. And in this sense it’s a really fantastical world, which has repercussions for who we are as people, even though they’re elves and dwarves and hobbits, there’s obvious parallels between the world which we inhabit and in which these characters inhabit. That’s a delight, it’s why we do it. For me this Middle-earth world is so interesting.

There has been uproar from some people about the hinted Gandalf-Galadriel romance in the Hobbit trailers and pictures. Is this a case of a studio looking to cash in on the sentimental crowd (a la, playing up the Aragorn-Arwen dynamic in LOTR), or could a legitimate case be found for it in Tolkien’s writings?

With the official release of the Hobbit trailer to the public last month, the Tolkien community was revived and revitalized almost overnight. Did your eyes light up when the familiar melody of Concerning Hobbits started? Did your jaw drop when the main theme kicked in about mid-trailer? *Mountains spinnin’ round the dwarves Horses spinnin’ round the dwarves*… Chances are you’ve come across this post just as excited for the movie as I am- drooling for more, but at the same time confused and even a little disappointed at the particular “scene of interest.”

When I first watched the trailer I was also confused. After some thinking -granted Im probably the largest LOTR fanboy and within 100 miles- I realized the trailer was still epic and that nothing Peter did was out of line. Today I venture to say the Galadriel-Gandalf scene is perfectly justified. Jackson had [at least I think] more in mind than appealing to a specific demographic.

Brace yourself, Im about the throw a bunch of Elvish words at you.
Gandalf, as we all know, is a wizard belonging to the Order of Istari, a group that also includes Saruman, Radagast, and the Blue Wizards Allatar and Pallando whom we don’t really hear about. What’s important about this fact is that the Istari were maiar. Many people like to call the maiar “demi-gods.” Others like to think of them as angels. In either case, they are defined by J.R.R. Tolkien as “Holy Spirits” that took part in the creation of the world. That’s right, Gandalf took part in the creation of Middle-Earth. He’s tremendously awesome and powerful. The five maiar were sent by the Valar (Greater Holy Spirits) to aid the men of Middle-Earth in the coming fight against Sauron. They arrived in Middle-Earth in the form of old men early in the Third Age, about 2,000 years before the Hobbit Epic begins.

Why am I telling you all this? In case you haven’t realized it yet, this not only means Gandalf was an extremely old soul- tens of thousands of years old at the least, but it also means he had an opportunity to inhabit the land known as Valinor (Essentially Heaven on Earth.) It was entirely accessible to normal living individuals for most of time, but forbidden to all but the elves. Galadriel lived in Valinor for about 1,400 years, meaning she had 1,400 years to mix and mingle with the various celebrities of the land, including the future wizards and even the infamous Melkor (Sauron’s master.)

There is no reason to believe that Gandalf (known back then as Olorin) did not meet Galadriel, or that they did not develop a acquaintanceship, friendship, or even semi-romantic relationship- she wouldn’t meet Celeborn for more than a millennium. What I underlined in the text above is incredibly important. Gandalf actually ages very slowly. He’s in the form of an old man not because of his actual age, but because that was the form he and the other Istari took up in order to appear more wise and trustworthy to the men of Middle-Earth.

He probably took on a form something along these lines for most of his worldly life:

When Gandalf arrived in Middle Earth much much later, Tolkien indicates that Galadriel trusted him more than the other Istari. She thought he should be head of the order over Saruman. For a reason beyond sheer instinct? The proposition seems plausible.

When we see Galadriel in the LOTR she’s about 7,000 years young. She is also extremely wise and powerful, perhaps on a level close to -if not on par with- Gandalf’s. (After all the Istari are forbidden from exercising their full power and will.) Gandalf and Galadriel are both members of the White Council, they’ve known each other virtually forever, and Gandalf is actually a lot sexier than wise-old-man form. Perhaps we should reconsider our opinion of Peter?. Sometimes he knows what he’s doing

The cool thing about this video is I was one of the 6500 people that got to see The Hobbit panel at Comic-Con this year. I’m glad you get to see what we saw and you get to feel the excitement of it all.

The Hobbit will be coming to San Diego for the International Comic-Con! There will be a Warner Bros panel that will most definitely include The Hobbit. As is usually the case, however, they have not announced yet (and may not do so at all) who is going to appear on the panel.

Warner Bros and Legendary Entertainment have announced plans to bring three of their highly anticipated projects to San Diego Comic-Con International’s Hall H on Saturday, July 14th.

Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim will make up that panel that is expected to occupy a three to four hour block on Saturday morning, July 14th. There’s no word yet which cast or crew members will be in attendance.

It’s no surprise that The Hobbit will be a major part of Comic-Con this year, and it will probably make a reappearance again next year, considering that Peter Jackson does love us at the Con. Updates and pictures of the panel will be posted that weekend, so follow us via Twitter for when that happens. The panel is sure to have a big, big crowd.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released in theaters on December 14, 2012. The second film, titled The Hobbit: There and Back Again, is slated for release the following year on December 13, 2013. Both movies are directed by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings Trilogy) and star Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Andy Serkis as Gollum, Elijah Wood as Frodo, plus Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Evangeline Lilly, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom, Stephen Hunter, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bret McKenzie, James Nesbitt, Luke Evans and others.

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